


Opening Up

by StoryMaker_Echidna



Category: Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoryMaker_Echidna/pseuds/StoryMaker_Echidna
Summary: Jimmy is annoyed with Clark's reluctance to talk about what's bothering him. But when Clark finally opens up, it's not exactly what Jimmy was expecting.
Comments: 1





	Opening Up

“Hey, Clark!” Jimmy said, waving to his friend in the break room

“Huh? Oh, hey Jimmy,” Clark said, barely looking up from his sandwich.

Jimmy sat next to him. “What’s wrong, Clark? You’ve seemed a bit down lately.”

“Oh, nothing,” Clark said with a sigh, taking another bite.

“Oh come on, Clark, don’t say that,” Jimmy said. “You got an awesome story just last week, but over the last couple of days, you seem kinda...well, depressed.”

“I’m fine, Jimmy!” Clark said, sounding almost angry. “Let’s not talk about it.”

Jimmy rubbed his forehead in annoyance. “Clark, I can’t count the number of times you said that when I’m just trying to ask you what’s wrong when you’re obviously not having a good time. I’m your friend! You can trust me.”

“Jimmy, you don’t understand,” Clark said. “There are some things that I just can’t talk about.”

“You always say that, too!” Jimmy said. “Are you some sort of super-secret super-spy or something? Because it seems like there’s an awful lot of things you can’t talk about with your best friend.”

Clark turned pale and looked away.

Jimmy sighed. “I’m sorry, Clark. I’m probably being kind of rude, prying like this…”

“No, you’re right,” Clark said. “I need to be more open…but not here in the break room, OK? Tonight, after work, you can come to my place. I’ll order a pizza or something.”

Jimmy blinked. “Uh, OK. That sounds good.”

Jimmy was a bit taken aback. That wasn’t the response he expected. What _did_ he expect? Well, probably either Clark continuing to refuse to give the information, or it turning out to be something relatively minor after all. Because either of those two options were what usually happened when Clark was going through something he didn’t want to talk about.

Jimmy realized that maybe it was rude for him to try to get Clark to tell him information when he clearly didn’t want to, but it was frustrating when such a close friend has such an unwillingness to talk about what he was going through. It made him feel like Clark didn’t really trust him. Plus, he worried about Clark.

Well, apparently, in this instance, Clark agreed. Unless he was just conceding because he felt worn down by Jimmy’s persistence…

* * *

 _Why did I say that?_ Clark thought to himself as he took another bite of his turkey sandwich. From the perspective of normal life, it made sense. But he wasn’t a normal person with a normal life – as much as he sometimes liked to imagine he was.

 _Will I regret this? Will this be a horrible decision?_ Clark wondered. He had already invited Jimmy over, but that didn’t mean he actually had to tell him the truth. He could still make something up. But he had a funny feeling he wouldn’t be very convincing, and they would be back at square one.

He knew he should probably just accept not being able to tell Jimmy the truth as a part of the whole double life thing. But Clark hated not being able to be open with his friends, and he hated lying to them even more.

* * *

That night, Jimmy knocked on the door of Clark’s apartment. He wondered what Clark was going to tell him. Family drama? An embarrassing medical issue? He already began to think that maybe it was stupid to press Clark so hard.

A few seconds later, Clark opened the door. “Hi Jimmy,” he said with a smile. “Pizza’s already here.” He gestured to the coffee table which held a large pepperoni pizza, a stack of paper plates, and a stack of napkins. Jimmy stepped in.

“Can I get you anything to drink? I have hot chocolate,” Clark said.

“Err, sure,” Jimmy said, sitting down on Clark’s couch. Clark walked over with two mugs and handed one to Jimmy, then sat down on the couch opposite him. Clark took a sip of the hot chocolate, then placed a slice of pizza on a paper plate. Jimmy followed suit.

Jimmy swallowed. “So...uh...what is it you wanted to tell me about, Clark?”

Maybe he should’ve tried to make small talk first. But what was the point?

Clark looked down. “I have to admit, it’s not easy to talk about. But...you are my friend. I guess I can trust you with this information.” He looked up, met Jimmy’s gaze, and took a deep breath.

“You know that great story I turned in last week? The ‘Intergang tell-all’ as they call it?” Clark said.

“Yeah?” Jimmy said.

Clark sighed. “Here’s the thing. That...that wasn’t me.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened. “What? What do you mean?”

“This...this is really hard to say, Jimmy,” Clark said. “But see...there’s this plan that Superman and Batman decided to enact, and, well...during that week I turned in that story, it wasn’t actually me. It was Batman taking my place. Disguised as me.”

Jimmy stared for a moment.

He didn’t quite know how to react to that. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting Clark to say, but it definitely wasn’t that.

“Um...why?” Jimmy finally said. “Why was Batman disguised as you?”

Clark inhaled sharply. “Well, that part I can’t exactly tell you. It was Superman’s idea, and I just went along with it.”

“Oh. Okay,” Jimmy said.

Once again, Jimmy had no idea what to say. It was almost as if what Clark had told him hadn’t completely absorbed into his brain yet. So he decided to take a bite of his pizza.

“So...um...do you understand why I was upset, now?” Clark said. “That great story that I supposedly got was actually all Batman’s. And maybe it’s silly, but it makes me feel bad. That someone can take my place and do a better job at my job than _I_ do. Somehow, it makes me feel replaceable. Less valuable. Even though I know full well my value as a person doesn’t come from journalism. Even though I know that Batman is the world’s greatest detective, so naturally he would be a better investigative journalist than me, too.” He rubbed his neck. “But emotions don’t always listen to logic.”

Jimmy blinked.

“Uh, yeah,” he finally said. “I mean – uh, that’s not what I meant to say. I mean, that’s...that’s true. Uh, I mean, the fact that yeah, you’re still great even if uh...even if Batman, uh...got that story.”

There was yet another pause.

“I’m sorry, Clark! It’s just...this is a lot to take in, OK? Batman replaced you for a week and like...I don’t even know why, and you don’t even know why?! I mean, that’s...that’s kind of crazy, isn’t it?” Jimmy said.

“Err, yeah, I guess it is,” Clark said. “Heh.”

“What...what were you even _doing_ last week? While Batman was replacing you?” Jimmy asked.

“Um, I was just working on some personal projects,” Clark said. “Maybe eventually I’ll show you them.”

“Oh, okay,” Jimmy said. “Um, that’s neat I guess.” He rubbed his head. “Sorry, Clark, I just...I don’t really know how to react to this. To any of this.”

“Er, that’s understandable, I guess,” Clark said. “It’s not every day that your friend tells you that Batman took their place last week. Heh. I mean, it’s – it’s weird for me too. Obviously.” He took another bite of pizza.

“Yeah,” Jimmy said. He rubbed his hands together. “Uh, so you really have no idea why they needed you to let Batman replace you?”

Clark shrugged. “They didn’t tell me. Superheroes have to be secretive about certain things, I guess.”

“Well, that’s...that’s sure something,” Jimmy said. “Uh, maybe instead of thinking about the fact that Batman got that story, you should think about how cool it is that superheroes trust you to be a part of uh...something that they’re trying to do. That, like...that’s pretty awesome. Isn’t it?”

“Hmm. Yeah, I suppose it is, Jimmy,” Clark said, taking another sip of hot chocolate.

“And, you know. Um, I don’t think the fact that Batman got that story means that like, he’s better than you are at your job. I mean, sure, he did good for one week, but you’ve been an awesome reporter for _years._ That’s a bigger deal than just getting one good story, right?” Jimmy said.

“I suppose that’s true,” Clark said, smiling.

“Honestly, it’s me who should feel bad,” Jimmy said “My best friend got replaced by an impostor for a week and I didn’t even notice!” He paused. “Though now that I think about it, you did seem a _little_ off. I mean, you didn’t seem quite as talkative and seemed to keep to yourself a bit more...but whenever I asked ‘you’ about it, you just said you were busy and stressed with the story.”

“Well, it’s a believable explanation, isn’t it?” Clark said. “Nothing to feel bad about.”

“I guess…” Jimmy rubbed his shoulder.

“So, uh. After we’re done with this pizza, how about we play some Jenga?” Clark asked.

“Sure. Why not?” Jimmy said.

* * *

As he put the leftover pizza in the fridge after Jimmy left, Clark reflected on what had happened. Things actually went awfully well. Sure, it was a bit awkward at first, but all things considered, Clark had succeeded at opening up to Jimmy without revealing his secret identity, all with minimal lying.

Of course, Clark did know why Batman had to take his place – it was _his_ idea. He needed Batman to cover for his absence while he hunted down Mongul. That was his “personal project” he had been working on.

It turned out that talking through things with Jimmy really did make him feel better, and it seemed to make Jimmy feel better too. Maybe he should consider doing this more often.

...But only with Jimmy. He had a way of just accepting things. No chance Lois would be satisfied with him simply not knowing why Batman would have to take his place. Even if she accepted that Clark didn’t know, she would surely hound Superman for weeks trying to get the answer.

* * *

Jimmy sat down in his living room, staring into space.

Overall, it was a pretty normal evening hanging with Clark. But he still couldn’t get over the...revelation.

And he had to wonder. There were a lot of times when Clark seemed unwilling to talk about stuff. Was the strangeness of this revelation a one-off, or had there been other times when Clark had been involved in some secret superhero business?

Perhaps it wasn’t that surprising, really. Jimmy knew Clark was Superman’s friend, just as he was. So Superman asking him for a favor wasn’t really weird, and maybe it had even happened multiple times.

It was a little strange that Clark felt so reluctant to tell him. I mean, he was Superman’s friend too. Did he really need to keep stuff like this secret from him? But maybe that was Clark’s way. He was just a more reserved and cautious person.

At any rate, Jimmy was probably thinking about this too hard. It did make him curious, though. Was Clark’s involvement with the superhero community deeper than he realized?

Maybe he’d have to ask Superman about it sometime.


End file.
